On Saturday, I’ll be catching up with some old friends at my 20th High School Reunion. I’m excited. I’ve rented a Farrari, got myself a nice haircut, and I’ve concocted an amazing story of success and world travels that will make everyone envious.
*sigh* Sadly, because I’m so public on Facebook and with my blogs, and Twitter, the old-fashioned “white lies” people tell at their reunion just aren’t going to work for me. I rarely say anything bad about social media, but if there’s one thing it has destroyed is a person’s ability to hide from themselves. I have a wife. Kids. A job I um …go to every day. And I drive a used car. My wife drives a mini-van. And everyone knows it. I’m not a professional golfer in Australia. I don’t run a charter fishing company in Ontario. I don’t have a seaside home on Maui. I never ran a marathon, I haven’t been on TV, and I’ve only met a few famous people and not one of those occasions made for a story worth telling.
This is all a-OK with me, though. I’m just looking forward to getting back to my hometown with people from my hometown, who knew me before anyone else in the world knew me. I love all my “new friends” I’ve made through work, social clubs, and through my children’s school, but you can’t beat “old friends.” And someday my “new friends” will be “old friends”, too. So that’s cool.
I feel like some people dread their high-school reunion and I have theories on why. I realize some people simply can’t make it, and some are probably indifferent on the whole thing and have few ties. But others, I think, are scarred by high-school. Do you think that’s why, from a class of 400+, we might be lucky to get 90 or 100 people? I wonder. And isn’t high-school tough for everyone? Every now and then (more common in the old days) you meet a person who’s “glory days” really were high-school, and they make no bones about it. But for everyone else, didn’t we all feel a little awkward? And who isn’t awkward at 15, 16, and 17? You never meet a person who says, “I was the coolest person in my graduating class. Everyone wanted to be friends with me.”
Whatever point I’m trying to make, I’m not sure, but I’m sure I’m excited for the reunion. Because nowadays, I want to be friends with everybody. It’s not entirely possible, of course, but why wouldn’t I want to be nice to people, say ‘hi’ to people, and at the very least discuss the weather (it’s hot, by the way). It takes extra effort, and I still fail from time to time (yes, occasionally I ride an elevator or pass someone in the hall and pretend I’m checking email on my Blackberry to avoid eye contact), but life is better when you live it.
It’s hard to believe I’ve been an adult for 20 years (or possibly 16 years, because I wasn’t very “adult” for most of my college career). Maybe going to this high-school reunion will re-inspire me. Maybe I’ll recognize some of the endless optimism and world of possibilities that were at my feet the day I graduated. So what if 20 years have passed and I never really chased down the #1 dream on my list. I’m only 38, and so is everyone else who will be at the reunion, and maybe we’ll all feel young again by hanging around each other. And we can leave the 20 Year Reunion with an eye on the 40 Year Reunion and some really, really awesome stories to tell.
And this was our class song. Alphaville’s “Forever Young” …a song I had never heard in my life when whoever picked it, picked it. But it’s a funny thing about a song someone calls your “class song” – it sticks with you whether you like it or not. 20 years later, I agree with the pick.
